Virgin Australia and Qatar Announce Strategic Partnership

[simmomelb]

I took the same flight, in J, a week ago and tried the QF lounge and was affirmatively turned away. I specifically queried OneWorld reciprocity and was told only for elites, not for J pax.

Did you ask for a lounge pass at the QR check in desk?

 

[Princess Fiona]

I took the same flight, in J, a week ago and tried the QF lounge and was affirmatively turned away. I specifically queried OneWorld reciprocity and was told only for elites, not for J pax.

That seems to be in line with the eligibility criteria:

Qantas Lounge Access Eligibility | Qantas

Find out more on Qantas Lounge access eligibility whether your traveling in First, Business; are a Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qantas Club or oneworld member.

www.qantas.com

That’s actually incorrect as per OneWorid rules.
OW has reciprocity for class of service.

International OW J Pax have access to the equivalent business class lounge at the port of departure.
QF cannot exclude QR J pax without status.

OneWorld

 

[AIRwin]

That’s actually incorrect as per OneWorid rules.
OW has reciprocity for class of service.

International OW J Pax have access to the equivalent business class lounge at the port of departure.
QF cannot exclude QR J pax without status.

OneWorld

Oh yes, I missed the International First/Business travel class under "oneworld status" in the table... Thanks!

 

[Mr H]

Oh yes, I missed the International First/Business travel class under "oneworld status" in the table... Thanks!

You didn't miss it, it just wasn't there. That page only considers people flying on QF, JQ or EK. It is silent on people flying on other OW airlines.

 

[Princess Fiona]

You didn't miss it, it just wasn't there. That page only considers people flying on QF, JQ or EK. It is silent on people flying on other OW airlines.

It’s there

 

[AIRwin]

It’s there
View attachment 316136

The table should be titled "Eligible oneworld status or travel class" instead...

 

[Princess Fiona]

The table should be titled "Eligible oneworld status or travel class" instead...

Yes it’s very clumsily written but should be good enough to show the ADL lounge staff.

 

[Mr H]

It’s there

You are right. I must be tired.

 

[jase05]

Yes it’s very clumsily written but should be good enough to show the ADL lounge staff.

Absolutely correct. I can’t see any reason why QF would not adhere to those rules.
Despite the crowding though I do think we would’ve chose the VA lounge anyway as you are literally from lounge to gate in about 10 minutes tops

 

[MattA]

Interesting. I'm flying MEL - ADL (VA J) connecting on to ADL - DOH (QR 915 in J) in May so had been trying to work out the lounge arrangements as I'll have a couple of hours to kill in ADL between flights. I have also found the rules on the QF site to be very (intentionally?) confusing but it seemed to me that I should have access to the QF lounge based on OneWorld rules.

I was planning to give the QF lounge a shot purely for novelty value (spent plenty of time in VA lounges but don't fly QF or One World very often and have no status with QF so only been in theirs on a handful of occasions). Also for the novelty factor that I'm flying on a QR award booked with VFF points and technically should have access to VA's main competitor's lounge.

I'll certainly be arguing the point so will have both the QF page and the OW pages linked above ready to go...

 

[AIRwin]

I was planning to give the QF lounge a shot purely for novelty value (spent plenty of time in VA lounges but don't fly QF or One World very often and have no status with QF so only been in theirs on a handful of occasions). Also for the novelty factor that I'm flying on a QR award booked with VFF points and technically should have access to VA's main competitor's lounge.

Enjoy the best of both oneworld!

 

[jase05]

Interesting. I'm flying MEL - ADL (VA J) connecting on to ADL - DOH (QR 915 in J) in May so had been trying to work out the lounge arrangements as I'll have a couple of hours to kill in ADL between flights. I have also found the rules on the QF site to be very (intentionally?) confusing but it seemed to me that I should have access to the QF lounge based on OneWorld rules.

I was planning to give the QF lounge a shot purely for novelty value (spent plenty of time in VA lounges but don't fly QF or One World very often and have no status with QF so only been in theirs on a handful of occasions). Also for the novelty factor that I'm flying on a QR award booked with VFF points and technically should have access to VA's main competitor's lounge.

I'll certainly be arguing the point so will have both the QF page and the OW pages linked above ready to go...

By May the new International lounge will definitely be open but no idea of QR’s intentions as to providing access though but I’d suspect they will cough up for it in the end.

 

[bernardblack]

Did you ask for a lounge pass at the QR check in desk?

I did not. The boarding pass invited me to the VA lounge, and I didn't expect any problems with getting into the QF lounge based on a OneWorld J boarding pass.

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2023

International OW J Pax have access to the equivalent business class lounge at the port of departure.
QF cannot exclude QR J pax without status.

OneWorld

Yeah, that was my expectation.

 

[bernardblack]

Absolutely correct. I can’t see any reason why QF would not adhere to those rules.
Despite the crowding though I do think we would’ve chose the VA lounge anyway as you are literally from lounge to gate in about 10 minutes tops

Yes, I just figured that I was going to use the VA lounge departing to MEL on my return, so it would be good to try out the QF option. Also, the VA lounge had a pretty ordinary dinner spread.

When I booked the expectation was that the Plaza Premium would have already been open for a couple of months by this point, and I would have used that through Amex Plat even if QR didn't provide access.

VA recommended far too early for me to go through passport control, and the holding area didn't even have the cafe I was told was present. That added to a delay boarding for no apparent reason, had me pretty annoyed when I finally boarded.

 

[jase05]

Yes, I just figured that I was going to use the VA lounge departing to MEL on my return, so it would be good to try out the QF option. Also, the VA lounge had a pretty ordinary dinner spread.

When I booked the expectation was that the Plaza Premium would have already been open for a couple of months by this point, and I would have used that through Amex Plat even if QR didn't provide access.

VA recommended far too early for me to go through passport control, and the holding area didn't even have the cafe I was told was present. That added to a delay boarding for no apparent reason, had me pretty annoyed when I finally boarded.

The staff on the lounge desk advised us on entry that boarding would begin at 1750 and that they make a lounge announcement 20 minutes beforehand. We left the lounge just after the call went out and got through in under 10 minutes so we just had a look around the Duty free store for a few minutes.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Jase05, what is the space downstairs like?
Ie after outgoing immi processing, but before going up the escalators to the "zoo", ie, the enclosed area that is usually the ADL dom gates, but that they are closed off for int dep.
So, its downstairs to immi processing and outgoing int security processing, and then upstairs again to the duty free area, and then into the zoo?
Is the area for where the "Plaza Premium" lounge downstairs there set up, or is it still a "work in progress zone", ta.
Will probably do the QR/AirNZ trip ADL - AKL in Jul 2024, have already got trip to NZ via MEL for Jul and Dec this year.

 

[bernardblack]

Any recent datapoints on how long points and status credits for QR-operated-and-marketed flights take to post to Velocity?

To close the loop on this, they arrived (without any follow-up required) overnight Monday, marking ~10 days after the qualifying flight.

Annoyingly, I got the full 80 expected status credits but only the 1.25x actual flight miles for the points, when I had expected to get the 100% Platinum bonus on redeemable points. However, when I checked the fine print, the Platinum bonus is only on VA-coded sectors. (This is different from UA, which is both UA/VA-coded, and from EY, which is only EY-coded.)

 

[jase05]

Slightly OT but my son was at ADL about an hour ago and jokingly said he had to look twice to make sure he wasn’t in Doha. 3x QR 777’s parked side by side at the gates and only 2x QF 737’s at the gate.

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2023

Any recent datapoints on how long points and status credits for QR-operated-and-marketed flights take to post to Velocity?

My flight from last Thursday credited to my BA account in 4 days, Mrs Jase credited hers to VA and they still haven’t posted yet

 

[MG1]

This is a newbie question - I'm trying to gain an understanding of this. I noticed that this question was asked a few times in this thread and would like to confirm the answer.

QR's website states "Earn Avios when flying on Virgin Australia marketed* flights that are operated** by either Virgin Australia or Qatar Airways.
You can also earn Qpoints on flights marketed[1] by Qatar Airways and operated[2] by Virgin Australia.
Qpoints earned on these flights will count towards elite membership status on Privilege Club.
Find the number of Avios and Qpoints you can earn on flights, as well as Avios required for award fights using My Calculator.
[1]Marketed refers to the airline whose flight number is specified on your booking.
[2]Operated refers to the airline you are flying on"

My understanding of this is that you could earn QPoints on an unlinked (i.e. not ticketed with QR international flight) domestic VA flight. Is this correct?

If so, is there a table that exists which lists the QPoints earned travelling between different Australian cities?

Thank you in advance.

 

[bernardblack]

This is a newbie question - I'm trying to gain an understanding of this. I noticed that this question was asked a few times in this thread and would like to confirm the answer.

QR's website states "Earn Avios when flying on Virgin Australia marketed* flights that are operated** by either Virgin Australia or Qatar Airways.
You can also earn Qpoints on flights marketed[1] by Qatar Airways and operated[2] by Virgin Australia.
Qpoints earned on these flights will count towards elite membership status on Privilege Club.
Find the number of Avios and Qpoints you can earn on flights, as well as Avios required for award fights using My Calculator.
[1]Marketed refers to the airline whose flight number is specified on your booking.
[2]Operated refers to the airline you are flying on"

My understanding of this is that you could earn QPoints on an unlinked (i.e. not ticketed with QR international flight) domestic VA flight. Is this correct?

If so, is there a table that exists which lists the QPoints earned travelling between different Australian cities?

Thank you in advance.

My read of this (I'm neither an agent not lawyer) is that for VA metal, Avios can earn on either VA or QR flight numbers, but QPoints are only on the QR number. And I would expect (but have not tried) that you can't get a QR flight number on a standalone VA domestic booking; the codeshare would typically only be on VA domestic ticketed in conjunction with QR international sectors.